Page 712 - Disaster Accident
10 killed in lightning strikes in West Bengal
At least 10 people were killed and several others injured in incidents of lightning strike as heavy rains lashed several districts of West Bengal today, officials said. Four persons were killed in lightning strikes in Bankura district, three in Hooghly district, while one death each was reported from West Midnapore, Birbhum and North 24 Parganas districts, they added. Bankura Superintendent of Police (SP) Sukhendu Hira said four persons, including a woman and her daughter, were killed in separate incidents of lightning strikes in the district. Lightning struck the woman and her daughter while they were working in the field at Rajagram village, while one person was killed in Nityanandapur village and another in Punisol village, the SP added. Officials said a few persons were also injured in lightning strikes. On Sunday, a 21-year-old aspiring cricketer from Hooghly district was killed after being struck by lightning at Vivekananda Park in Kolkata as he was about to start his practice.
Three killed in lightning strikes in Bankura
Three persons were killed in two separate incidents of lightning strike in West Bengal's Bankura district today, a senior police officer said. Superintendent of Police, Sukhendu Hira said a woman and her daughter were killed when lightning struck them while they were working in the field at Rajagram village. In another incident, one person was killed when lightning struck him while he was working in the field at Nittyanandapur village, the SP added.
Heavy rain triggers flood in Mizoram
Heavy monsoon rain has triggered flood in Lunglei and Aizawl district of Mizoram today, officials said. State School Education department declared today and tomorrow as holidays for all schools due to the heavy downpour. Over 1000 people have been evacuated to safer places in the two districts due to the flood, they said. Over 250 families living along the Khawthlangtuipui river in Lunglei district were evacuated to safer places as around 180 houses were submerged in the flood triggered by heavy rain since Sunday night, police said. The water level of the river continued to rise as heavy rainfall continued unabated today submerging over 100 houses in Tiperabagh and 70 houses in Serhuan village while around 30 houses were submerged in Tlabung town, they said. State Disaster Management and Rehabilitation department officials said large areas of paddy cultivation in Lunglei district were submerged by the flood. At least 10 houses were submerged in Sairang village, about ...
One killed as oil tanker catches fire in Bengal
An oil tanker caught fire after turning turtle in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district on Tuesday, killing one person, a fire official said.
14 killed as landslides sweep away Rohingya shelters in Bangladesh
At least 14 people were killed and several others went missing today as torrential rains triggered landslides near camps housing over one million Rohingya refugees in southeast Bangladesh. The landslides triggered by heavy rains washed away several homes and shelters in the districts of Cox's Bazar and Rangamati - both bordering Myanmar from where some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled into the country due to a military crackdown. Heavy rains have caused severe structural damage to camps. So far, more than 9,000 have been affected and the number is expected to rise as the monsoon rains, which lashed the camps for the last two days, continue. At least twelve people were killed in landslides in different areas of the hilly district of Rangamati while two people were killed in Cox's Bazar. Rangamati Civil Surgeon Shahid Talukder said the victims could not be identified yet and rescue and relief teams were struggling to reach people due to difficult terrain. Most of the victims were ...
FIR against Airtel, Reliance Jio for damaging road in JK's Kishtwar
An FIR has been registered against major telecom players Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio for reportedly carrying out unauthorised digging and damaging 62 km road in Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir. Six persons have been arrested in this connection, the police said today. A criminal case was registered against the management of Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio telecom companies for damaging 62 kilometers of road from Chatroo to Sinthan Top by carrying out unauthorised digging for laying of optical fibre, a senior police officer said. The police took a strong note of the damages caused following a complaint of the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL). The FIR has been registered under Section 431 (Mischief by injury to public road, bridge, river or channel), Section 336 (Act endangering life or personal safety of others), Section 427 (Mischief causing damage to an amount of over fifty rupees) of RPC as well as Section 3 of Prevention of Damages to ..
11 die in collision on Russia's Volga river
Eleven people were killed in an accident on Russia's mighty Volga river when a catamaran collided with a barge, emergency services said today. Rescue efforts ran through the night after the accident late yesterday near Volgograd in southwest Russia -- one of the cities hosting the World Cup football tournament opening this week. "The rescue operations have just finished. The last body has been recovered and the number of dead is 11," the local emergencies ministry said in a statement quoted by the Ria Novosti news agency. At least 16 people were on the catarmaran, according to a statement from the Investigative Committee which has opened an investigation into possible breaches of safety regulations. According to an unnamed source quoted by the TASS news agency, the catarmaran was built to take 12 people and was unlicensed. Local media reported that the vessel was being driven by a former municipal official in Volgograd, who has been convicted in the past for various misdemeanours ...
Schools, colleges shut in rain-hit Karnataka districts
Hundreds of schools and colleges were shut on Tuesday due to heavy rainfall in Kodagu and Chikkamagaluru districts in Karnataka as the southwest monsoon advanced vigorously, officials said.
Paris suburban train overturns, 7 slightly injured
A landslip caused by heavy rains today caused three carriages of a Paris suburban RER train to overturn, slightly injuring seven people, France's transport minister said. "There has been... a landslip on the RER B" between the southwestern suburbs of St-Remy-les-Chevreuse and Orsay, the minister, Elisabeth Borne, told Franceinfo radio. It caused "three carriages to overturn. Fortunately, there are only seven slightly injured, who are being treated." A spokesman for Paris transport operator RATP said the heavy rains caused the collapse of an embankment just before 5:00 am (local time), which led the carriages to derail and tip over. Authorities in the Essonne department where the accident took place confirmed seven people had been slightly injured. Several departments in the Paris region have been placed on an orange alert for heavy rains and flooding, as storms battered much of France over the past days.
10 killed in landslides in Bangladesh
At least ten people were killed and several others went missing as landslides triggered by torrential rains swept away houses in south-eastern Bangladesh's Rangamati district. On this day a year ago, the landslides struck the same district killing more than 100 people. Torrential rains today triggered the landslides in Rangamati's Naniarchar area, officials said. Four of the 10 deceased belonged to one family from Dharmacharan Karbari neighbourhood, the bdnews reported. "We could not reach the affected areas as the road became very bad due to landslides. So, it will take some time to get exact information about the number of deaths or missing, officials said. Although 120 people died in last year's landslides, none of them were from Naniarchar. After the incident, the district administration made a list of vulnerable settlers, including 1,111 people of 239 families in the district.
Andhra: Safer train rides for women with 'Subhadra Vahini'
In a unique initiative to give a boost to women security, the Visakhapatnam railway station of Waltair Division, East Coast Railway, has launched an all-female group of railway personnel, named Subhadra Vahini, who will assist lady passengers subjected to inconveniences.Started on Monday, Subhadra Vahini is a group of 32 railway personnel comprising 16 from the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and an equal number from the commercial wing of the division.To get in touch with Subhadra Vahini, women can dial on the toll-free number 182.On a similar note, Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday told ANI that the safety of passengers is of utmost importance for the Railway Ministry."The mindset of people has changed towards the Railways during the tenure of the present government. Today, the Indian Railways is focusing on passenger safety and is putting its best foot forward to see how we can upgrade infrastructure to improvise and address the areas which affect the consumer ...
Odisha to install lightning sensors to warn people
The Odisha government has decided to install lightning sensors across the state so that people can be warned about possible lightning strikes to save them, an official said today. An early lightning warning system is required as lightning strikes have claimed at least 18 lives in the state, in the last three days, Odisha's Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) B P Sethi said. "We can get information about lightning 45 minutes prior to lightning strike. The state government will make arrangements to send the information to the people through mass media," Sethi said. This will help people to move to safer places, Sethi said. The state will sign a MoU with a US-based lightning analysing system company this week, the official said. The company, called Earth Networks, will install the lightning sensors at various places across the state, the SRC said. The SRC said the lightning senors would be installed in high-rise buildings and multipurpose shelters. On an average, 419 people ..
Guatemala volcano eruption toll reaches 114
The death toll from the eruption of the Fuego volcano in Guatemala on June 3 has increased to 114 after another four bodies were found, according to authorities.
Two killed, one injured in Bulgaria military helicopter crash
A Bulgarian military helicopter crashed during a training exercise near the southern city of Plovdiv, killing two of the three men onboard, the defence ministry said. The Soviet-made Mi-17 helicopter yesterday burst into flames after coming down from a height of 50 metres at around 11 pm IST not far from the Krumovo military airbase and Plovdiv's civilian airport. "Two of the crew -- the commander and the co-pilot were killed in the fall of the helicopter. The third crew member -- the board mechanic -- was immediately transported to hospital, (he was) conscious," the ministry said in a statement. The cause of the accident was not immediately known, it added. The helicopter was Bulgaria's only operational Mi-17 chopper and mainly used for firefighting in difficult terrains. The accident is the second deadly crash involving a Bulgarian military helicopter in the last 12 months. Last June a Panther-565 of the Bulgarian navy plunged into the Black Sea during a military exercise off the ...
Three miners killed at South African gold mine
At least three gold miners in South Africa were killed today after entering an abandoned shaft, its owner said, in the latest of fatalities to hit one of the country's largest mining firms. The bodies of three out of five employees who had entered the disused shaft at the Kloof mine, 60 km west of Johannesburg were retrieved, Sibanye Stillwater spokesman James Wellstead told AFP. However, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) reported a death toll of four miners. "We only have three confirmed dead," said Wellstead, adding that rescue teams were still searching for the other two employees. "At this stage we don't know why they were entering a non-operational workplace," he said. Unions lashed out at the company, which has lately been at the centre of a number of tragedies at South African mines. According to unions, 19 deaths have occurred at various Sibanye mines across the country so far this year. "It seems that ...
Himachal HC directs state to file affidavit to solve water crisis in Shimla
Himachal Pradesh High Court on Monday directed the state government and Shimla Municipal Corporation to file an affidavit, stating what arrangements and mechanism are being adopted by the authorities to solve the issue of water crisis in the city.On June 8, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur had directed officials to fast-track water supply projects so that Shimla does not face shortages again next summer.Thakur reviewed the water situation in the state capital and had asked officials to complete the ongoing projects to increase water supply within a year.The chief minister had earlier cited decline in rain and snowfall in 2018 as the reason for acute water shortage in Shimla.Rampant water shortage has also drastically hampered tourism in Shimla and stirred protests against the state government for failing to curtail the situation.Officials have cited rising mercury and drying up of natural water resources as the main cause of the crisis.
Safe to travel to Kerala; Govt
The Kerala government today lifted the travel advisory it had issued in the wake of the outbreak of deadly Nipah virus last month, that has claimed 17 lives so far. Health secretary Rajeev Sadanandan said ina statement here that it was now safe to travel to any part of the state. The May 24 advisory was withdrawn a day after the government lifted the high alert sounded in Kozhikode and Malappuram districts. "Nonew cases have been reported for the past 21 days. Since this is more than the longest recorded incubation period of the virus, we consider the Nipah outbreak to be over in the state," the statement said. The government, while lifting the high alert yesterday, had stated that the virus has been brought under control and its spread checked. It also decided to reopen educational institutions tomorrow, which was postponed from the scheduled date of June 1, due to the virus outbreak. State health minister K K Shylaja had said that the virus has been brought under ...
Haryana police prepares plan to check crime
Haryana Police has prepared a new work plan to put a check on crimes at highways and to provide instant assistance to road accident victims, an official said. As many as six sub traffic booths have been established at Delhi-Jaipur Highway from Kapdiwas border to Jaisinghpur Khera border. Stating this today, a police spokesman said the aim was to put a check on crime on highways and to provide instant assistance to road accident victims. As many as 36 trained police personnel have been deputed at these booths, he said. Three officers would remain on duty at day time and three at night time at these booths, he added.
Blaze in Delhi factory
A blaze broke out in a rubber factory here and fire tenders have d been sent to the spot, a fire service official said, adding no casualties were reported yet.
Passengers know why trains getting delayed: Goyal
Railway Minister Piyush Goyal today said safety was the first priority of the national transporter and that passengers were well aware why trains were getting delayed. At a press conference, highlighting the achievements of his ministry, Goyal said the railways had registered its best ever safety record in 2017-18 with consequential train accidents reduced to 62 per cent -- from 118 in 2013-14 to 73 in 2017-18. "Maintenance of the tracks, which was due for decades, is causing train delays. The passengers are well aware why the trains are getting delayed and they know that the Indian Railways is getting future-ready. Everyone knows what we have received in inheritance," he said. Lashing out at the previous UPA government, the BJP leader said while former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had announced the Rail Safety Fund in 2003-04, it was not considered for 10 years, due to which an unsafe railways was passed on to the present government. Stating that the average annual capital ...